auburn hills >> With all the offseason moves the Pistons made, it’s easy to forget Detroit is still a young team.

Andre Drummond is in just his second season, his first as a full-time starter and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is a rookie. That’s two-fifths of the starting lineup that are experiencing many firsts in the NBA.

Drummond started just 10 games last season and averaged 20.7 minutes per game on the season. He’s averaging 32.5 minutes a game this season and has started all 33 games.

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Drummond also missed 22 games starting in early February with a stress fracture in his back.

Playing the type of minutes he is this season is completely new to him.

“I’m competing,” Drummond said. “I’m 20 years old. I take care of my body each and every day. After practice I make sure I get the proper treatment so I feel good the next day. The minutes are not a factor and I feel real good.

“Some games where I play like 38, sometimes I play a lot more than usual, an overtime game, I think, ‘Alright I had a big workload today.’ I know what I have to do to go inside the arena and take care of my body and get ready for the next day. Am I ever tired? No.”

Drummond averaged 13.8 points and 13.0 rebounds in 32.1 minutes per game in the month of December. Those numbers are up for the 12 points and 12 rebounds in 33.5 minutes he averaged in November. Still the Pistons are making sure to keep close tabs on his minutes.

“It depends on how he’s playing,” Pistons coach Mo Cheeks said when asked if he plans to cut Drummond’s minutes. “Sometimes it’s hard to cut his minutes and certain guys minutes. It’s hard to do that. We don’t want to take it for granted for him to go out play 35-plus minutes and think it’s easy to do because it’s hard playing 35, 36 minutes a night. People leaning on you and you’re trying to do all these things, it’s hard, but I think he’s capable of doing it. He’s only going to get better the more he plays.

“You gotta get used to playing those kind of minutes. I think for the most part he’s been good at it. I said there is some merit to guys playing lots of minutes and then slowing down. There is a lot of merit to it, but we’ve had days off. There was that one stretch where we played all those games. We just gotta be conscious of guys playing tons of minutes.”

Caldwell-Pope played just 32 games in each of his two seasons at Georgia. He’s already played 31 for the Pistons (14-19) this season. He averaged nearly 34 minutes a game at Georgia and is averaging 23.5 with the Pistons, but the season is not even halfway over yet.

The Pistons don’t expect Caldwell-Pope to supply a ton of offense, but he plays a huge role defensively guarding the opposing team’s starting shooting guard.

“We are asking a lot of him,” Cheeks said. “To be able to guard certain 2s in the league. There’s some high-level 2s. For him to be able to do it, night-in and night-out, that’s a tough task for him. I think he’s capable of doing it. Hopefully he’s going to just keep getting better at it. There is such a thing as a guy hitting a wall, playing a lot of games. Guys playing lots of games, lots of minutes. It has some merit to it.

“He’s got to be able to challenge those guys. I think that’s most important. If you’re not challenging somebody like (Arron) Afflalo, Joe Johnson, those kind of guys they are going to have big nights. ... But if he’s challenging him that’s all you can ask. I want them to know that he’s there. That’s the biggest part. You have to know that they’re there.”

Entering Saturday night the Pistons are in sixth place in the East, but six teams are within 2 1/2 games of them and eight are within 3 1/2 games.

The Pistons play just 13 games in the month of January after playing 17 in a busy month of December. The extra rest could help the young team make a run or the young players could really start to hit a wall.

Even a small winning streak could give the Pistons some breathing room in the Eastern Conference. How Detroit’s young players respond will go a long way in determining if the Pistons go up or down in the standings.

About the Author

Dave Pemberton has covered the Detroit Pistons for The Oakland Press since 2008. Prior to that he covered the Oakland University basketball team. Reach the author at dave.pemberton@oakpress.com
or follow Dave on Twitter: @drpemberton.